Montana's wolves surprisingly vulnerable during inaugural hunt

Wolves may be wily and among the more intelligent wild critters, but hunters are not experiencing much trouble finding and killing them in Montana's remote Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness.

The state's inaugural and highly controversial wolf hunt began Sept. 15 in four small districts in which deer and elk hunts also are in progress. The statewide hunt begins Oct. 25.

In the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, which is along  the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, nine wolves have already been killed. The state set a quota of 12 in this area.

Carolyn Sime, wolf program coordinator for Montana Fish, Wildlife  & Parks, told the Billings Gazette: "We didn't think wolves would be that vulnerable to firearms harvest. The uncertainty is why we went with the low quota."

The agency, which has a separate web page to keep tabs on the number of kills, did not expect the quota to be reached before the statewide season opens, but that's now likely. The statewide quota is 75 wolves.

Montana's wolf population at the end of 2008 was believed to number 500. More than 10,500 wolf hunting licenses have been issued.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, are still trying via lawsuit to have the the cagey predators placed back under endangered species act protection, which would bring an end to hunts believed by the state to be a valuable means of wildlife management.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of gray wolf courtesy of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

Comments

[Rob R]

To Don Brown maybe you should move to San Francisco sounds like thats were you belong!

[Sheryl]

As for Don Brown, I strongly believe you are mistaken in your facts. As for Jim, are you sure Jim it was wolves stalking your neighbours' dog's?.. or was it Coyote's? This 'stalking' behaviour sound's more like Coyote activity, not Wolf. In truth, Wolves do not kill for fun, especially over 100 in one day, this sounds very much like a set up slaughter to justify a ranchers right to the Wolf Cull.
Steve and Robert's comments are just and accurate, especially with regards to the eco-system balance out of whack, which was why the United States asked Canada for some Wolves to help reinstate balance. Nothing more sad to see than a starving Elk or Deer due to imbalance in the nature of things. Man is the true problem here, its our mess, and this Wolf killing is reinstating the imbalance all over again.

Why is it only you people have a problem with the Wolves? I live in Canada and we have many Wolves, and I have not ever heard of issues like you people have. Coyote's are a bit of an issue, but we don't engage in eliminating their population, we learn to live with them. We build fences up here.
Normally, Wolves are never seen. I wished Canada had never sent the State's our Wolves in the first place, just to have them grow in population so they can be killed off by crazed blood thirsty hunters with a bad attitude. I feel we betrayed these animals in so many ways.
To add, the Deer Cull that happened in another state to 'save their tulips' twisted many guts in disgust.
Canada is not exempt from stupidity, admittedly, the Seal hunts are a disgrace in many opinions and we want it promptly stopped as well.
The poaching of Elephants in Africa for the ivory is another disgrace.
I wonder if all these lame excuses to 'kill' wildlife everywhere is to feed the Asian's want for furs and ivory. In these economic times, it begs to ask such questions. Because of our bad behaviour all around, sadly the wild life suffers.

[CRYSTAL D. -OHIO RESIDENT]

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING! AS A HUGE LOVER OF WOLVES, I THINK THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG! IF I HAD THE SPARE $500.00 TO GO AND SPEND ON A PLANE TICKET TO FLY TO THIS STATE, I WOULD TELL THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE ISSUING THESE "WOLF HUNTING LICENSES" OFF!

[Sarah]

For more on this issue, please see the NRDC blog below:

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mskoglund/montanas_wolf_hunt_isnt_going.html

[Jim]

I also live in Montana. Western Montana. I have seen wolves attempting to cross my nieghbors fence to get at their dogs. I do not live out in the boonies either. I have had wolves growl and bark at me. I have had them approach my son and I. Wolves kill anything they can. They are a predator. Do you think that a pack of wolves is going to walk up to a prey animal and decide it is not weak, old or young and then leave it alone? If you do then you should do a little research beyond the Disney channel and The Defenders of Wildlife website. That is the biggest part of the problem. Wolves prey on the calves. They are the weak. They pester the animals during their mating season to a point where fewer cows are bred. The cow/calf ratio has to be about 25% to maintain the population of elk. It is now 6% in most of Montana. Calves don't get killed by hunters as has been pointed out. The elk herd that winters behind my house was about 150 animals 10 years ago. It now numbers about 65. I have seen 5 wolves behind my house in the last 1 1/2 years. Those 120 sheep were not killed because they panicked. They were killed by wolves, for fun. Which ecosystem are you trying to restore? The one that existed 200 years ago or the modern one we live in today? I have an idea, instead of killing wolves, lets start sending the extra breeding pairs to places like Southern California and New York or Massachusetts and you folks can deal with them since you seem to know better.

[Robert]

Don Brown, I do live in Montana which means I have to put up with people like you presuming to talk for me.

Those 200 sheep you are talking about - I am assuming from the context of what you are saying that you are referring to a single incident so it must be the one near Dillon. That was 120 sheep, not 200. Let's keep in mind that sheep are a fairly delicate animal and the panic is probably what killed them, not the teeth of wolves. It speaks to the mindset you are trying to create against wolves by depicting them as bloodthirsty and evil when they were trying to hunt to eat so they can live. Man is the only creature that kills for fun. Just because we don't eat our meat (now) while it is still kicking, like cougars, grizzlies, wolves, coyotes, foxes, badgers, etc, doesn't make us morally superior. And if you got hungry enough and there was no grocery store you'd lose that superior attitude about eating it alive.

As to the numbers of elk, scientific studies show that the animals preyed upon are the weak, the sick, the old. Man kills the strong, trophy elk with the large antlers.

That "bunny huggers" label is old and tired. Please retire it and yourself.

[Steve]

To Don Brown,
The real travesty is that we killed off all the wolves in the first place, which allowed the elk herds to grow beyond the ecosystem's ability to support so many animals. Once the herds got so big and animals started dying, park rangers had to start feeding them artificially so that tourists wouldn't be traumatized by starving animals all over the park. That made the elk lazy and dependent on the feeding stations set up in the park. Now that wolves have been re-introduced, they're picking off these weak elk and helping to ensure only the strongest survive. So a drop in elk numbers isn't because of wolves going out and slaughtering them unchecked, it's the re-balancing of the ecosystem to natural and sustainable levels.
As for those sheep you whimper about, the wolves were there long before the sheep ranches and have more right to exist than domestic sheep herds. Plus, ranchers are compensated for each animal they lose to wolves, so it's not like the ranchers are filing bankruptcy because wolves ate a couple of sheep. And I suppose you saw these 200 sheep that were "left to rot" after being "murdered by wolves"? Wolves don't murder anything, they kill for food. Murder is a term reserved for humans killing humans, not predators killing their prey. Did you murder a cow yesterday for the steak you ate for dinner? Calling wolf kills "murder" makes you just as crazy as the PETA folks who say humans eating cows is "murder".
You're right though, wolves were wiped out for a reason... we call it "greed". They were killed because ranchers and government officials bought by ranchers decided that losing a few sheep or cows was a cost that lowered their profits. Plain and simple, wolves were costing them money, so they wiped out the wolves. I'm just hoping that we understand the ecosystem and the importance of predators better now to see what a huge mistake we made in allowing wolves and other top predators to be systematically wiped out.

[Don Brown]

To Seems like a travesty,
If you really want to see a travesty, check out the Elk population from Yellowstone Park. There were over 16,000 Elk; this year there are less that 9,000. You should have seen the 200 sheep that were murdered by wolves, not eaten, left to rot. Wolves will eat on a live animal and not even kill it. Wolves were wiped out for a reason and "Bunny Huggers" don't understand what is happening. If you live in WY, MT or ID you might better understand.

[Jeff]

This seems like a travesty. If it is allowed that 15% of the Montana wolf population be hunted, how probable is it that this 15% will be replenished? Is 500 wolves even a healthy enough population to be messing about with?

But beyond the questions, wolves are apex predators. They do not have natural anti-hunting skills like deer and other prey. So, why does it follow that just because they are wild animals they'd be difficult to hunt?